What is often missed in Y2K mitigation is just how much software was discarded in favour of something more modern. I had a happy customer that was using softwa

What is often missed in Y2K mitigation is just how much software was discarded in favour of something more modern. I had a happy customer that was using software that I built in the early 90s. I was asked to 'Y2K certify' it, which I couldn't do for free, so they had to ditch it before Y2K. Even though I would have used proper datetimes, there may have been a couple of places where there were problems, such as printed reports or displaying dates on the screen. I certainly couldn't underwrite that it would work without reviewing it extensively. Apart from cobol/mainframe projects to fix bugs, a significant part of Y2K preparation was throwing out whatever cobbled-together software businesses had, and replacing it with SAP. Indeed, a large part of the SAP sales-pitch in the mid-nineties was 'Y2K ready'. The number of SAP licences sold in the mid-late nineties is useful data for Y2K mitigation that was often overlooked. It was highly likely that various applications within any particular business had Y2K problems, as with my little application. If they didn't, you get the original vendor to certify them as being 'Y2K ready'. For many people involved, it was quicker, cheaper, easier, and less risky to replace with SAP, rather than review and fix everything. I am convinced that ERP (SAP, Oracle) and CRM (remember Siebel?) were given major boosts in adoption due to Y2K alone.